Because all admins of Facebook pages have the same rights, it’s possible for any admin to remove any other admin. What this means is that the owner of a Facebook business page can set someone up as an admin, then that person can easily turn around and remove the page owner. This can be a huge problem when the page represents a business.
Recently I’ve had a number of people asking me about this very problem. Some of them have (had) active business pages but because a disgruntled employee or former web developer was able to hijack the page, they’re in a real bind. The hijackers refuse to give the page back, and the business owners are afraid of what the person in control of the page will do to their business. Face it, some people will go to great lengths to ruin someone if they’re angry enough. And being able to mess with a company’s Facebook business page, especially if it’s an active one, is a pretty sure-fire way to do just that.
There may be a way to get your hijacked Facebook business page back though. The Facebook Copyright Policy allows a user to report infringement of intellectual property, including copyrights and trademarks. This would include using your business name, trademark, copyrighted content, and/or custom URL on a business page.
How to Report an Infringing Facebook Username
To do this, fill out the infringing username form. If the Facebook username matches your email address my best guess is that your complaint will have a bit more legitimacy, as well as if you are able to provide a trademark registration number. There is also room to state why the page is infringing on your rights, so be sure to include that. As with most things, the more concrete information you can provide, the better off you will be.
How to Report an Infringing Trademark and/or Copyright
You can also report copyright or trademark infringement by completing the Facebook DMCA form. As with the infringing username, provide as much information as possible to prove your ownership of the material in question.
Keep in mind that Facebook has over 800 million users, so I wouldn’t expect an overnight response to your complaint. Since I haven’t had to go this route for myself, or any of my clients, I’m not sure how long it may take. With hosting companies it can take a few hours to a couple weeks. If any of you file a complaint with Facebook though, please let us know how it goes. My hope is that it’ll be a fairly quick turnaround.
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I’ve posted my claim about 2 years ago and go every day at the Church for praying ever since. I don’t think God has heard me yet.
I have deleted my personal account, not realizing it is so tied to the business page, is there a way to recover admin to a business page, the page is still live but has no admin. So strange!
Try logging in to your old profile with the email / password you used to login with before you deleted it. It may restore your admin privileges for the page.
I was hired as the Social Media Manager for a nonprofit, and I learned that their Facebook page was created by a former employee, and no one knows who. I tried contacting the administrator for the page and received no reply. What makes this situation different from the scenario above, is that I don’t know the username of the person I’d be reporting for infringement. Is there anything I can do to find out the username of a page’s current administrator?
Unless the person made the page admin public, you won’t be able to find out. However, you shouldn’t need the person’s name. If you fill out one of the forms listed above, that should suffice.
I’m part of an open-source project, we contacted the creator of the page we would like to use, but he lost admin access for this page. The page is adminless (I guess). Our project name/logo is not registered. Any idea on how we can take over this page?
If he lost access, there’s no easy way to regain it. You can try contacting Facebook by filling out this form.
I lost the admin rights for my Business Face Book Page, I am not able to get it back, the person who hijacked it has all the rights now, I can not do anything about it, Very Frustrating